Table of Contents

This study is provided by ICPSR.
ICPSR provides leadership and training in data access, curation, and methods of analysis
for a diverse and expanding social science research community.

News Media Study, 1957 (ICPSR 3511)

Principal Investigator(s):Withey, Stephen B.; Davis, Robert C.

Summary:

This study contains data on the use of the news
media by 1,919 adults in the United States in 1957 and their
attitudes toward science and scientists. Closed and open-ended
questions were asked to explore the role of the mass media in
informing the public about developments in science, as well as
respondents' use of newspapers, magazines, radio, and television,
and the programs of interest to them. Additional questions
explored respondents' use of the media as a source of scientific
information, their assessments of the medium that pro... (more info)

This study contains data on the use of the news
media by 1,919 adults in the United States in 1957 and their
attitudes toward science and scientists. Closed and open-ended
questions were asked to explore the role of the mass media in
informing the public about developments in science, as well as
respondents' use of newspapers, magazines, radio, and television,
and the programs of interest to them. Additional questions
explored respondents' use of the media as a source of scientific
information, their assessments of the medium that provided a major
source of their entertainment, news, and science information,
their attitudes toward science and its effects on society, their
understanding of the meaning of scientific studies, their opinions
of the character of scientists and their freedom to engage in any
kind of research, their concept of causality, and their views of
earth satellites. Demographic variables include age, sex, race,
education, marital status, family composition, religion, and group
memberships. See the related collection, SURVEY OF CONSUMER ATTITUDES
AND BEHAVIOR, SPRING 1958: NEWS MEDIA (ICPSR 3632). Approximately 25
percent of the news media survey was repeated in a national survey
in spring 1958, six months after the launching of the Russian Sputnik.

Access Notes

One or more data files in this study are set up in a non-standard format, such as card image format. Users
may need help converting these files before they can be used for analysis.

Data in this collection are available only to users at ICPSR member institutions.
Please log in so we can determine if you are with a member institution and have
access to these data files.